“6th, what the fuck is she?!” asked a Singi through tear-stained eyes. The front of his pants had been soaked with piss forcibly pushed out of his body by fear. At his feet was the corpse of his friend.  

When the fight began, Carmelo, Carrie, and the other members of Deset ran away and used the crowd of bodies as a shield. A few members with hearts too pure to withstand such brutality chose to run away. They believed they had a better chance of survival at deserting rather than fighting against that Human-shaped monster. Unfortunately for them, Carmelo held no love for traitors of any kind, even though he himself wanted to grasp command and have everything the Mafia controlled. A strum of his metallic bow was the last thing they heard.  

“6th?! 

“Boss, whadda we do?!” 

“Hey?!!” 

Soon, everyone turned to Carmelo with wishful eyes. As the leader, they were under his command. The only one who stayed her voice was Carrie. Somehow, she didn’t seem freaked out by the godly fight happening only a few short meters away. Even as Servi met fist with a fist, the awful exchange creating such harsh, piercing screeches, the Singi never once changed her vacant expression.  

Carmelo was about to shout when it happened. The world turned black. No, that wasn’t quite right. A tremendous shadowy beast emerged from the fight in front of them, covering Deset’s members in a cold shade. They felt the temperature rapidly drop, like that of a freezer turning on for the first time, but it might have been their senses playing tricks on them to keep them sane. Filled with despair, Carmelo dropped his body as two hands went to his head. They forcibly grabbed his pointy ears and squeezed until blood dripped down the side of his shaking face. Even if Servi won, and it definitely seemed possible, how could he ever control that thing?  

His nerves got to the better of him as he rapidly spoke the chant for Dimensional Storage. A distorted circle appeared in the space beside him. His hands swiftly threw themselves into it, coming back with three large bags filled with particular pills of a specific color. Red Monotonia, but they weren’t just simple Red Monotonia. The ones he carried with him had a slight sparkle that would dazzle the eyes of a child in the dead of night. In addition to the rage it flooded the user with, it allowed them to remain somewhat sane while completely destroying the user’s self-survival instinct.  

They would literally fight to the bitter end while powering through lost limbs and missing flesh. However, their mind would intact for the most part, which allowed them to formulate and follow complex plans. It took many years of experimenting in secrecy to develop it away from the Mafia’s prying eyes, especially when the secret process of making it was only held by the Roger and the very few people people he trusted. Whenever Roger would change locations, like going from Adenaford to Arcton, he would go through the effort to bring along the people, supplies, and equipment. He refused to have multiple factories going at one time for both privacy and safety. Still, it was easy to make as long as someone had the knowledge, so it didn't take long at all to have a new stockpile of pills at the ready.

Still, it took Carmelo over three years to reverse engineer a Red Monotonia from scratch. Add on the extra five years of experiments to alter its properties to what he desired while staying under the radar, it was a wonder he even got it done in the first place. If there ever was a time to use it, then it was now because his mind had arrived at a decision, and it happened to be the worst one. 

He was likely to die by the hands of Williana—Servi—and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Putting up a fighting chance was a fool’s errand. Running away wasn’t an option, either, even though it seemed like it was the best chance of survival.  

Shit, I know the boss probably told them to kill deserters. I’m dead if I stay... I'm dead if I run away... I'm dead if I fight... Shit... I can't die here! I just can't!!!! She can't possibly survive if we gang up on her, right? Obliterating her with overwhelming firepower is the only way...I can get what I need to save my home forest!

“Everyone! Listen up! Take a handful of these pills and get ready!” Carmelo shouted and turned around to face the members of Deset. In his heart, he didn’t care for them at all. He wouldn’t lose a single second of sleep if they perished in the impending fight. His heart felt the same way about the thousands of warriors surrounding him. If anything, he wanted that to happen. Controlling the minds of a few was considerably easier than forcing the masses to bend to his will. If the stars aligned, Carmelo hoped no more than five hundred would be alive when the moon came out. That would be enough people to start with. Then he could slowly take over the Mafia in the other parts of the world.

“We need to fight that monster!!! Once we do, we will be rewarded by the Mafia’s thick coffers. For the prize of defending the Mafia will be riches beyond our wildest dreams!!!” Carmelo took careful note of his words, which excluded the name of his target. He only said ‘monster.’ Since he couldn’t see the pure state of the battle, Carmelo relied on the sounds he heard.

The part of his mind responsible for decision-making still believed that Servi was his loyal Mad Dog. Another part believed his coup was destined to be a failure. And yet, a third believed in something totally different. All three did their best to ensure the body's survival, which led to a massive amount of conflicting thoughts and feelings.  

Words, spewed from his mouth like venom, came out faster and faster as the battle between two monsters came a close. Carmelo said and begged anything to the only group of people that could register his words. Such actions unbecoming of someone so close to the Mafia’s inner-workings, but that was what Carmelo's mind decided on. He promised wealth to those who wanted it, and he vowed women to those who desired a harem. For those who didn't want either of those things, he promised them the world and a lasting legacy.

He even turned to the mindless zombie-like soldiers around him and offered a red pill. They looked down at him as the tiniest sparks of life appeared, but they ended up looking away. If it didn’t come from Sakdu, they weren’t interested because one of the first commands he ever gave them was demanding they pledged their undying loyalty to him in exchange for Monotonia.  

Other than them, the only Deset member who strayed away from taking the pills passed out by Carmelo was Carrie. She blankly stared at the hard ground. Even when the tidal wave of blood poured over her and the rest from Deset, she never made a single movement or noise.  

Suddenly, Carmelo heard his Mad Dog shouting. “WAKE UP!!!” she kept repeating.  

“Listen! It’s time to strike at our foe!!!” the Elf shouted. He hastily picked up his metallic bow and charged forward towards the shouting. His men followed behind, bumping shoulders and knocking down any who stood in their way as their voices combined together to create a war cry powered by anger. Hatred surged through all of their bodies the moment that enhanced red pill touched their tongues. However, their minds weren’t clouded by any negative emotions at all. Fear had no place in their hearts. It wouldn’t fog their eyes, nor would it slow their sword arms. Carmelo’s sweet words were laced with what they wanted to hear.  

Somehow, should they emerge victorious from the battle against whoever he declared as the ‘monster,’ Carmelo would’ve been in the prime position to actually assassinate Sakdu.  

At least, he thought he would. His reasoning was sound if he used the knowledge he had, but it was the things he didn’t know—all of the unknowns—that ended his coup before it had a real chance to succeed.  

He didn’t know he was surrounded by men only loyal to the boss.  

He didn’t know that Servi was immortal.  

Most importantly, he didn’t know of the harsh grudge Servi held against the Mafia.  

For as clever as he thought he was, he wasn’t. He wasn’t the mad intellectual Elf with a grasp on every single thing. The truth was that it was dumb luck he even got anywhere with Servi in the first place. The stars and moon were lucky enough to have Servi's wishes be slightly similar to that of Carmelo's.

If she hadn’t shown up, and Servi and Momo had made it back to Canary, Carmelo’s coup had a greater chance of succeeding, but it still would have ended in failure.  

The game was rigged from the start, but he had no way of knowing that. Years of effort were wasted and destined to end in failure.  

He understood that dread very well when he and the other members of Deset, including a traumatized Carrie, made it to the front of the crowd. After sending an untold amount of blood splattering up into the air, he saw a girl who had the aura of a true Mad Dog.  

A bit of the blood around Servi's arms and hands was gone from her repeated punching, yet her lips looked as if she had feasted on whatever surrounded her. It took Carmelo a few precious seconds to connect the dots. That unmistakable nadrium armor could have only belonged to the Kobold. And since he didn’t see him anywhere, Carmelo had no choice but to deduce that the bloody pile of meat floating in mid-air was what was left of him.  

His Enhanced Red Monotonia was supposed to nullify everything, including fear, but Servi emitted such a harrowing aura that it overpowered the drug. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his men shake in their bloody boots. Teeth chattered as if the temperature had dropped to below zero. Sweat dripped down, soaking their dried lips with a salty taste.  

After Servi had punched the fifth mass of meat since Carmelo arrived at the front line, she slowly turned to her former handler. “Hey, you’re going to give me the fight I want, right? After all, I was the one who assassinated those fucking weaklings for you! Fight me! Fight me! FUCKING FIGHT ME!!!” Her words came out as shouts, yet the calm demeanor on her face didn’t match up all. She cracked her knuckles and shook off blood like she was about to relax, yet her tone suggested anything but.   

---

The bloody beast standing in front of him swallowed Carmelo and his men with fear. With his arm feeling like it weighed nearly a hundred tons, the frightened Elf somehow found the strength to raise it high while giving a single command.  

“ATTACK!!!!”  

Servi held her hands together in front of her as she awaited whatever pathetic force her foes could muster. The first wave was a volley of arrows, launched by Carmelo as the opening shot. The silvertip pierced her two hands, impaling them to her stomach. What came next was an impressive force of skills nearly a hundred strong. Water and ice froze her solid to the core. Fire and heat scorched her skin. Debris, carried by the wind, smashed her face and broke her bones, yet she remained standing through all of that pain.  

“After being in that cube, IT DOESN’T FUCKING HURT!!! NOTHING FUCKING HURTS!!!!” Servi shouted. Even as her skin was set aflame by a highly enhanced Fire Wall, Servi’s skeletal system still stood steady. The crackling of her jawbones, the alien-like wave of flesh rebuilding her muscles and organs first, followed by her skin and hair, forced Carmelo to do something he never wanted to do.  

His hands shook. The weight of his beloved metal bow was something he had gotten used to since he was a little Elfling. That was when he met Clarence and formed a beautiful bond of friendship between Spirit and Elf.  

She was tremendously powerful; there was no doubt about that. Her incredible mastery over the wind removed any and all need for her to be physically strong. When her summoner strummed her bow, sending green waves of energy blossoming out, it wasn’t Carmelo's doing.  

It was her—Clarence.  

As a Spirit with incredible power, she could use many skills just by listening to her summoner. When he commanded her to heal, she did just that by picking the right skill for the job.

As Carmelo still trembled on the edge of decision, he didn't see a shivering Singi with red hair. Total despair blanketed her face like the cover of darkness after the sun had gone down. As mad as she was at Servi, the sight of watching her former lover endure attack after attack while not even registering the pain it caused. In Carrie's grief, she let go of the black spear and fell to the ground while clawing at her head.

Everything hurt her. The sun, the wind, the air she breathed; all of it forced her to cry out in pain, but it all originated from a certain girl’s betrayal.  

Itarr, who swore to Servi that she would focus on Momo and only Momo, used the disturbance to subtly use Kaasuvuoto to put the violent Singi to sleep. And since Servi currently couldn’t see because her eyes were being roasted alive, she didn’t see her enemy join her best friend in the sky. The black spear was along for the ride as well since Itarr knew how much Carrie loved it. She opened the Singi's left hand and placed the weapon in her palm, then telekinetically closed it.

The smell of burnt meat permeated the smell of waste and excrement, overpowering it until it was the only thing available to smell. After five minutes of constant skill and arrow barrages with not even a second of rest, Carmelo’s group had drained a lot of their Skill Energy. Though their minds still wanted to fight, their bodies would prefer to fall to the ground and rest. Carmelo, who had now grasped his bow with both hands, struggled to take that final step.  

If he broke his bow, Clarence’s true power would be unleashed. It would also mean that she didn’t have to listen to his orders anymore. The bow was a narrow outlet for her power as well as proof of their contract.  

“Well, what’s this?!” Servi’s voice brought him out of his daze. Instead of looking at a Human, he saw a monster. Flames continued to scorch her body, forcing her True Immortality to constantly regenerate her organs and skin. Her vocal cords were so damaged that her voice came out scratchy and sharp, like glass. She took a step forward, causing some of the fire blazing her foot to spread down to the bloody ground. A bit of it instantly evaporated, but not much. Servi had many ways to remove the damaging flame, yet she chose not to.  

After all, it didn’t hurt one bit. If anything, the pain felt pleasant and enjoyable.  

“You can’t give me the fight I want?!?! Then why are you alive?!?! I will kill you!!! I’LL FUCKING SLAUGHTER ALL OF YOU!!!!!” 

As soon as Servi made the first step in walking towards Carmelo, he made a choice. Though it was metal, his bow had a weak point. It only needed to bend in just the right area, and it could snap as sharply as a dead stick. 

“CLARENCE, I’M SORRY!!!” Tears fell from his eyes, something that was supposed to be impossible because he was under the influence of Red Monotonia, soaking his hands as he heard a single snap.  

“Dummy, what do you have to be sorry about?” a tiny voice asked. A tornado of green wind covered Carmelo. It surged in width and intensity until it covered all members of Deset. When it reached the approaching Servi, it slammed into her, pushing her away. Once she was far enough, the wind wrapped around her, suddenly yanking her in the direction of Carmelo.  

He shouted, but all he heard was Clarence’s voice reassuring him he was okay.  

The fire burning Servi’s skin was extinguished when she was suddenly jerked away for the second time. However, the dead and burnt skin was somewhat glued to her body. The wind took care of that as it sent nearly sixty kilograms of ruined skin flying in every direction. 

The wind protecting Carmelo’s group lifted up in the air, folding over and over as it fell on top of Servi like some sort of wind structure. Hundreds of thousands of silent green wind blades encircled her prone body, which had been thrown against the ground. With the roasting fire extinguished, Servi’s regenerated, virgin skin became overloaded by the wind.

Standing up, she realized she was enclosed. The space she had available was less than half a meter. It was only large enough for her to stand up. Leaning to the front meant she’d touch the barrier of wind. Bending backwards would result in the same outcome. The whistling wind assaulted Servi’s hair with an army of breezes and gusts. Figuring it wasn’t worth the hassle, she stuck her finger to the whirling green cage and pulled it back when she felt a pinch.   

The tip of her index finger was missing. With her sharp eyesight, she saw it shred right before her gaze. A blank stare later, the wound she suffered had healed and regenerated.  

“Clarence—” 

“Carmy, I’m right here,” said a voice. The shaken Elf felt the touch of two hands across his chest.  A green wave of energy swarmed around him to reveal a humanoid figure the shape of a woman with wings. She was nearly eight feet tall.  

Her blond hair reached down to her waist, but it contained no blemishes. It was like a wave of yellow honey in both its texture and smell. Looking up, Carmelo saw two green eyes, deeper than the most vivid emerald, staring down at him with a loving gaze. Her pink lips had faint green lines, yet it only served to enhance the spirit’s natural beauty. The strapless green dress she wore came down to a bit below her knees, and her shoes were made from swirling green energy. Whenever she walked her feet would never touch the ground because her wind kept her elevated.

Spirits were divided into three categories based on their strength. They were Minor, Average, and Superior. While the categories weren’t as definitive as they could have been, with most experts wanting to change the names to fully represent the power of the three types of spirits, they figured it would be more confusing to have six different terms to refer to three things.  

As a Superior Spirit, Clarence had power rivaling that of a Rank 1 Warden member, possibly bordering on Rank 0 if her surroundings were optimal.

“Carmy, it’s been years since I’ve been in this form. It feels good to finally stretch out my legs and arms. Hey— Oh?” Clarence heard a tiny whimper coming from down below.

“Clarence, I… I… I’m sorry I haven’t— I was afraid—Whaa—”  

Clarence lifted her summoner via the wind she controlled from her fingers until she stared into his eyes. Then she placed a single kiss on his lips as a familiar metal bow appeared in his peripheral vision.  

“What, did you think I’d just run away and leave you here alone? You’re my precious summoner, Carmy. We’ve been together for nearly a hundred years, so why would I ever leave? You’re my whole life,” she said.  

Such heartfelt words coming from his one and only best friend was the ultimate push of strength he needed to see the battle through.  

“Didn't you promise to take over the Mafia and use its power and connections to help rebuild your home forest? Even though that wasn’t in the initial pact, I still wanna help you achieve your goals!” she said.  

“Thank you, Clarence,” Carmelo said. The spirit placed him on the ground and stood behind him as his beloved bow—the object Clarence used as a home—descended in front of him. When he grasped it, it glowed green and swirled with wind and energy, covering it limb from limb. The mystical glow died down and dispersed into the air, which promptly flew behind him and into Clarence’s outstretched hand.  

The non-verbal pact between summoner and spirit had been reforged again, this time to an unbreakable degree. Only death could break the two apart.

Carmelo channeled the growing anger provided to him by the Enhanced Red Monotonia and barked out orders in a commanding tone. “Men, take the time to use whatever potions you brought with you! Now that we have the power of a Superior Spirit, victory is assured to be ours. Be ready to attack in a few minutes.” 

He turned from the group as chants for Dimensional Storage echoed out. The clanking of a hundred potions falling to the ground followed suit, which did little to drown out the critical conversation Carmelo was having with his Spirit.

“Do you know what that thing is?” He pointed to the captured Servi, who kept placing her hands inside the windy prison. They always came back missing a few fingers, but they always healed up.  

“I do not. I refuse to believe Williana's a Human. If anything, it’s like she’s a Human-shaped monster or Spirit.” 

“Then what about her regeneration? Do you think we can win?” 

“Carmy, there is nothing in this world that is infinite. There is always a limit. You can’t burn a match forever. A river will eventually run dry if it receives no rainfall. And skills will always end when the Skill Energy it needs to activate runs out. There is a limit somewhere to her regeneration. Unfortunately, I do not know what that is.” 

“Then do you know the source of her regeneration? We saw her ID, remember? It had nothing about Regeneration on there.” 

Clarence folded her arms and sighed. “That’s true. But what if her powers originate from one of the Forbidden Skills?  There’s Necromancy, right? I’m sure that category has something to do with regeneration. Chronomancy might explain it if it was something to do with reversing the Skill Energy in her body, but I think Reality Control and Elemental Control can be ignored. Let’s face it. If she had Reality Control, then we wouldn’t be here talking right now. And since it’s a forbidden skill, I’m sure it wouldn’t show up on her ID in the first place.” 

“So the best way to win would be—” he started to say, but his spirit spoke first.  

“The best way to beat her would be to run out her regeneration. We need to do as much damage as possible until she runs out of Skill Energy. Ugh, look at that thing. It’s laughing when its hands are chopped off...” Clarence shook her head in disgust, sending waves of honey-like hair scattering across her shoulders and covering her impressive chest. “If that shitty boss would command this army to attack, then she’d be dead by now. Even as strong as that thing is, there is only one of it. That thing isn’t a dragon.” 

“I see what you’re saying. That thing doesn’t have any scales, only weak flesh that can be scorched black,” Carmelo added. Clarence nodded her head and crouched down until she stared at her summoner in the eye.  

“That’s right. Unlike a dragon, we don’t have to get past that thing's scales to find the soft skin underneath. That thing is only skin, muscle, and bone. In any case, we need a sustained—” 

“HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!” Servi’s shrill laughter caught the attention of Carmelo, Clarence, and the rest of Deset. Like moths to a flame, they all whipped their necks around and stared at the unbreakable prison of wind.  

The girl inside kept jabbing her hands in and out, laughing as they were torn to shreds by the sharp wind. Then she suddenly walked forward. The green blades sliced up her body, severing large chunks of flesh that only regrew. Parts of her head and eyes were taken out, which left her blind and deaf. When Servi's legs were sliced up, she pulled herself along the ground for a quarter of a nanosecond. When her hands were the next to go, she pushed off with what little bit of feet had regrown, which was very little.  

Her cycle of movement hinged on pulling and kicking herself forward millimeters at a time until a single part of her body broke past the supposedly unbreakable prison.  

However, Servi did it. By the time a single finger had touched down outside the prison, the green wind was no longer the color of grass. Instead, Servi’s countless body parts had corrupted it, turning it a nasty red which carried a few stray pieces of bone. But more than that, every little bit of meat slowed the raging winds by that much. After some time, it was slow enough for Servi to gain centimeters of distance before her body had been torn to shreds.